A couple years back, I went through a Zandonai “Francesca da Rimini” obsession phase, and the Ligabue recording of the piece (a live French radio broadcast from the ’50’s or so that has since been released commercially) was definitely the weakest recording I had come across. Well-sung, but lacking absolutely any fire or urgency, and that music doesn’t really provoke (or withstand, IMO) an intellectual reading. I’m not familiar with much of her other rep. I’ve heard Alice ford was her specialty -- I can see how that (and Mozart) might be.

Rudolf

@ Opera Teen
Are you familiar with the Bulgarian “Francesca” recording with Raina Kabaivanska? On RCA.
:-)

Krunoslav

Just to make sure, Opera Teen, that you have seen these Kabaivanska FRANCESCA clips (Turin, 1980 w/ the wooden but serviceable Franco Tagliavini) among my favorite things on Youtube:

Thank you for the recording of Rosa Raisa whom I had never heard before. She was Puccini’s first Turandot I believe. The Vespri bolero isn’t necessarily the first piece that comes to mind when thinking of other repertoire a Turandot might sing (and vice-versa); for example I’m not sure Nilsson ever sang it--but I’d bet she could have.

-Olivia Stapp ( VESPRI in Geneva; I saw her TURANDOT at Torre del Lago, aptly matched with Antonio Ordonez-- to the Timur of Paolo Washington!)

armerjacquino

Ha! And Netrebko has erred as far as the arias…

mjmacmtenor

Elinor Ross could have. She debuted at the Met as Turandor and sang Nirma and several florid Verdi roles (though I cannot find if she sang the aria from Vespri)

Krunoslav

Well, one can think of several “could haves”, but VESPRI was not all that commonly given until relatively recently.

How about Maria Nemeth and Pauline Tinsley?

armerjacquino

Hunter could have managed both but did neither as far as I know. And Sutherland.

Krunoslav

Hunter’s WNO Turandot in 1979:

Tinsley also sang the role there.

But I don’t think either sang VESPRI.

armerjacquino

Welsh or Washington? (can’t click on the YT as the shared wifi here blocks it)

lyrebird

That one is W for Welsh.

She sang a spectacular tile-cracking concert Turandot with Collins at the Sydney Opera House c. Cillario, far preferable to Armstrong in my opinion. She arrived on the concert platform dressed in red chinoiserie with seriously peaked shoulders looking like a squashed pagoda to chants of Rita Rita Rita from the groupies. She had a huge fan base. 1988. There’s a pirate around.

grimoaldo

This conversation about one of the things I love the most in this world, Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers, led me to a really terrific performance from the tiny Verdi theatre in Busseto, with the tremendous bass Orlin Anastassov as Procida, wow is he awesome, and the truly excellent soprano and baritone Amarilli Nizza and Vladimir Stoyanov. The production is updated to the Risorgimento and they build a walkway around the lower seating level so that the singers are more or less mingling with the audience, how wonderful it must have been to be there.
Thank you RAI and Busetto opera house and youtube and most of all illustrious,immortal maestro Verdi!

grimoaldo

Stoyanov sings “In Braccio Alle Dovizie” from the above performance. When I hear this aria sung like this I feel it must be the most beautiful and moving thing ever written.

Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin

In a New York Times interview in the early 1970s, Nilsson was asked about Norma. “Too many little notes,” she replied (but she did confess, “I have this recurring dream that I must sing Carmen…”). Have you ever heard her attempt Rezia’s florid music on the DG recording of “Oberon?” It’s sort of like a Sousaphone trying to play “Flight of the Bumblebee.”

Nelly della Vittoria

What a thrill it gives the imagination, and what baffled yearning, to read Claudia Cassidy writing about Rosa Raisa:

“Raisa’s voice was a royal purple dramatic soprano shot with gold and fire, and if you ever heard it on a great night you know that isn’t fancy writing, but a reasonable description of the improbable come true […] Raisa’s voice struck straight at two vulnerable places: the spinal column and the heart.”

Too much of the great Rosa’s (well, this great Rosa’s) recorded legacy seems to’ve been poorly engineered, and the tremendous size of her voice probably didn’t help matters, but I love (as we should all love) this 1923 recording of the Mefistofele aria, where for once you can hear the unforced size and voluptuousness of her sound, and also the fluent authority of her florid singing. What Turandot, save Callas, has ever sung like this since?